Abstract:

In the following thesis, I present The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin as educational texts that productively open space for student exploration of religion in the high school classroom. Although similarly celebrated for their leadership and insight during the civil rights and black power movements, Malcolm X and James Baldwin held distinctive views as to the usefulness of religion in ameliorating racial injustice in the United States. For example, the Nation of Islam informed, gave language to, and sustained Malcolm’s perspective on race in America. Following his religious experience, however, Baldwin concluded that religion is a mask behind which we hide from our desire to love dangerously. Baldwin’s account of dangerous love offers a way to understand Malcolm’s second religious conversion, in which he moves closer toward radical reflexivity. Malcolm’s religious transformation models the challenging process of multicultural education, which encourages rearrangement of thought and reassessment of identity. Witnessing this transformation, students too engage in the process of multicultural education by questioning their own narratives of religion. Unlike race and gender, the study of religion is infrequently considered as crucial content in the field of multicultural education. By proposing that students read these texts in tandem to explore the nature of religion, I encourage a rather perplexing learning experience that deeply mystifies the notion of “truth.” In doing so, I show how the challenge of defining religion is entirely fitting for multicultural education in that it encourages constant questioning, learning through crisis, and critical exploration of self. Finally, I include a tangible resource for educators who are interested in using these texts to discuss religion in the classroom.